La Punta. Just hearing that name gets a surfer all excited. The wave in front of the little village Santa Catalina is pretty famous among surfers. So our expectations are quite high when we finally get there after another complicated journey that involves six different busses (again: Panama’s public transportation is not the most efficient…). With all our bags we struggle up the hill out of town towards the beach – since being close to the waves beats having a supermarket nearby. After looking around for a bit we find a hostel with the fitting name „Surfer’s Paradise“. The view onto La Punta is what gets us right away.

So this is where we want to spend the next couple of days. And we soon realize: We reeeeeally like this place! We have one of the best Latin American surf spots on our doorstep, we can hang out with other surfers from all over the world and we have the prospect of a pretty good swell hitting soon. That convinces us. Instead of a couple of days, we end up staying for almost two weeks. Only the hostel kitchen makes us wanna run away every time we enter it – seems like everyone here rather surfs than cleans his mess up… Anyways, we spend hours in the water every day, either at La Punta or on the beach break nearby. Some pretty funny things happen in the line up: For instance, there is this psycho pelican that likes to land in the middle of the line up, then puts his beak down, stares at a surfer and slowly swims towards him. Pretty scary, actually. It might be pissed it has to share its surf spot with so many humans… Then there is this cute old couple who’s seeking the adrenalin rush. He (68) joins the crowd on his longboard, she (73!!!) in a canoe. And they don’t just sit there. You look for the biggest wave in the set and you can be sure that either one of them will be on it. As if that weren’t crazy enough already – the lady is actually paralyzed and cannot use her legs. So she’s attached to the canoe by some straps. Pretty impressive! On big days, when we didn’t even go in the water, they were always out. Speaking of big days. Swell does finally hit:

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On the weekend, a surf contest takes place at La Punta. Its highlight: hostel owner Italo. He surfs straight into the finale. Well…to be fair, there is only four contestants in his category (longboard), so there are no qualification rounds. But anyhow, in the finale, he actually gets tubed. The whole hostel is out of control. In the end, he makes second.

Italo with his medal

Last but not least, our surf bag gets a bit heavier. It must be somewhere around 20kg now. Why? Patricia bought a new board. She got it directly off the shaper, a Brazilian who is spending his vacation at the same hostel. And she already has a name for it: ODB (old dirty bastard). Quite fitting, if you ask me. Especially, if I have to carry it around…!